Abdullah Abdullah, Afghanistan’s top official in the peace talks with the Taliban, met with senior officials in Pakistan on Monday as he began a three-day trip during which he will meet Prime Minister Imran Khan and the country’s military leaders. .
The chairman of the Afghan High Council for National Reconciliation was received by senior government officials upon arrival in Islamabad.
“We discussed the #PeaceProcess, the talks between the Afghans in Doha and the strengthening of bilateral relations,” he tweeted after a meeting with Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
In his meeting with Qureshi, Abdullah appreciated Pakistan’s efforts to move the peace process forward.
Quershi told the visiting delegation that Pakistan, as a shared responsibility, has been playing the role of facilitator in the Afghan peace process and that the peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban and subsequently the intra-Afghan dialogue held in Doha, have raised the prospects for lasting peace. in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani minister told the delegation that Afghan leaders should seize this historic opportunity and undertake serious efforts to bring the Afghan peace process to a logical conclusion.
“We will also have to watch out for saboteurs who do not want peace and stability in the region,” Qureshi said, adding that “Pakistan wishes the dignified return of millions of Afghan refugees to their homeland.”
Abdullah is expected to meet with President Arif Alvi, the head of the army, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, the president of the National Assembly and the president of the Senate.
He is accompanied by a high-level delegation that includes prominent members of the council.
A statement from the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said that Abdullah will deliver a keynote speech at the Islamabad Institute for Strategic Studies and interact with the media.
This is Abdullah’s first visit to Pakistan in his capacity as Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation. The visit will provide an opportunity for a broad exchange of views on the Afghan peace process and the strengthening of Pakistan-Afghanistan bilateral relations and people-to-people interaction, the ministry statement said.
He said Pakistan attaches great importance to its brotherly ties to Afghanistan, deeply rooted in shared history, faith, culture, values and traditions. Pakistan fully supports all efforts for peace, stability and prosperity of the Afghan people. Abdullah’s visit will help to further strengthen the friendship, brotherhood and close cooperation between the two countries, he said.
The council represents the Afghan government in the historic peace negotiations with the Taliban that began in Qatar on September 12. Those talks represent the most serious effort yet to end decades of war in Afghanistan that followed the 2001 US-led invasion that toppled its Taliban government. which then housed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who planned the 9/11 attacks.
The Afghan-Taliban talks come after an agreement signed in February between the United States and the Taliban. That agreement is aimed at allowing the United States to withdraw from Afghanistan and end the longest military engagement in American history.
Many Taliban leaders have lived in Pakistan since the 1980s. In those years they were part of the Afghan Mujahideen, allies of the United States to end the 10-year occupation of the country by the Soviet Union.
Pakistan has denied giving refuge to members of the Taliban after its overthrow in 2001. Yet both Washington and Kabul routinely accuse Islamabad of providing them a safe haven, citing the Taliban’s long ties to Pakistan’s powerful Interservice Intelligence agency. .
Khan has said publicly that his government facilitated the talks. He said it is now up to the Afghans to seize this opportunity.
Pakistan’s border areas in the northwest served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban and other militants until a few years ago, when the military said it had cleared the region of insurgents. But the occasional attacks have continued.
(With contributions from Agencies)
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